


Ringing

by VerdantMoth



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Established Relationship, Hopeful Ending, M/M, Physical Abuse, Punishment, Whipping
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-20
Updated: 2018-05-20
Packaged: 2019-08-23 14:30:24
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,528
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16620803
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VerdantMoth/pseuds/VerdantMoth
Summary: Arthur screams then. Loud and long and until his throat is raw. He screams as he is stripped and scrubbed and redressed. He doesn’t stop screaming until he is locked in his room. Until the doctor comes and shines a light in his face and tells him the damage is permanent. He’ll always be half blind and half deaf.





	Ringing

 

Arthur still has the taste of sin on his lips when they drag him to the courtyard. He wants to scream at the sight before him. Wants to lash out and fight, wants to curse his father’s guards. He can’t though, for the gloves clasped to his mouth, for the hands bound behind his back, for the heavy grips that scrape his knees along the cobblestone and shove his aching knees into the dirt.

Merlin is naked, not even afforded the luxury of a scrap of cloth between his legs. Arthur tries to bite at the glove, tries to catch it between his teeth, but the hand beneath is to broad, is too practiced.

His father has Merlin on his knees, strung up by his wrist between two hazel trees. Merlin's shaking. Arthur knows it must be bad if he can see it from this distance. He’s so horrified by the naked shivering that at first he misses his father looming over Merlin.

He sees him, when the first lash falls. Merlin screams then and his back arches as he tries to get away from his bindings, Uther doesn’t say anything, the guards remain steadfast. Uther strikes again. This time, blood mars the pale flesh of Merlin’s back, bright red in the sun. 

 

The hand over Arthur’s mouth gets tighter, cutting off air for a moment. He struggles against his captors anyway, screaming through the leather. Uther strikes Merlin three more times in quick succession, so hard the skin breaks immediately. Merlin twist and turns trying to get away, trying to cry out.

No one has said anything, has offered any explanation for why Arthur was ripped from his bed and forced out here, but he knows. He knew the moment he saw his lover tied and waiting. He doesn’t know who told his father, doesn’t know who else even knew, but he knows this will not end well.

He doesn’t know if Merlin even knows he’s watching this unfold. Uther pauses a moment and puts his hands on Merlin’s back, right in the middle of the flayed flesh. His fingers curl in the bloody mess and Arthur can hear the way Merlin’s whines echo across the courtyard.

His father says something, a few things, that make Merlin shudder. Make him pull so hard at his bindings that blood drips down his wrist. Arthur can’t hear anything that is said, but still he struggles to get up off his knees to run towards Merlin. This time, the weight on his shoulders lessons and he manages to half stand. Uther must hear something, because he looks over. The grin he gives his son is inhuman, at best. He grabs a tuft of Merlin's hair and yanks his head back, forces him to twist so that he can see Arthur.

Arthur makes a noise high in his throat. Merlin’s face is three shades of purple and green and swollen. His left eye droops and there’s a constant trickle of blood from the corner of his mouth. Arthur can’t tell, but he thinks Merlin’s nose has shifted.

“A’er.”  Merlin writhes against his retainers, eyes wild and blood everywhere. Uther’s grip on his head releases so he can curl his fist and strike Merlin in the gut. Arthur screams out, throws all of his weight forward and manages to break free from the guard holding him for just a moment.

Uther spits at him. “Silent, filthy beast.”

He picks up his instrument again. This time Arthur can see it’s just a thick switch. Sturdy and ribbed and probably picked from their own garden. It makes Arthur sick, for reasons he can’t explain, that his father hasn’t even gone for a proper whip.

Uther moves in a flurry of movement, several quick strikes that happen so fast  Merlin doesn’t even get a chance to catch his breath between strikes. Stripes of skin hang off his back, same as the tatters of the curtains that hang in his shabby flat.

Arthur wants to scream at him, to beg him to use his magic to free himself. But he knows Merlin, knows he won’t because it would put  _ Arthur  _ at risk.

Arthur bites harder against the glove that’s found his mouth again, hard enough that he can feel the bones creak. “Father!”  

He shrieks it before the gloved hand shoves at his jaw in a bruising grip, forcing his teeth to grind against each other. Uther doesn’t even spare him a look. He just reigns blow after blow down Merlin’s back, occasionally letting them fall lower across his butt, between his legs.

Arthur can do nothing but thrash, as a third guard joins in the effort to restrain him.

Merlin slumps forward at one point, hangs limply from the ropes. It doesn’t stop Uther’s abuse. Uther doesn’t stop until he’s sweating and panting, and his shoulder must ache because he rubs it. He turns towards the guards and motions them forward. The drag Arthur across the stone, unconcerned for the way it rips at his knees, forces his sleep pants into the wounds.

They release Arthur in front of his father and Uther grabs his son by the neck. “This is what heathens get.”

Arthur snarls at his father. “And what do I get?”

Uther grips him around the neck and bares his teeth. “You get to watch as I beat the repentance out of him.”

Arthur tries to stand, despite the burn in his knees. He raises a hand, grabs at his father’s wrist. “You’ll kill him.”

Uther shrugs. “I offered him salvation. He can repent his sin, admit that he has defiled you and promise to leave.”

“And if he doesn’t?” Arthur's heart pounds wildly as his father shrugs and cracks his knuckles.

“There is no other choice.”

Arthur scrabbles against the hands that grab him once more. He uses all of his weight to fight back, to break free. He even manages a few good hits before one of them hits him in the side of the head with something heavy. A rock perhaps.

His head rings, and he knows, the way one does, that the sudden silence, the sudden darkness curling through the left side of his face cannot be fixed. He sinks to his knees, tells himself it’s just for a moment. Just to catch his breath.

Uther steps around to the front of Merlin and begins his onslaught once more. He draws pained whimpers out of him, and Arthur can only half watch as Merlin thrashes and writhes, desperate to get away.

“Please,” he cries out.  “Please Merlin!”

Merlin shifts, struggles to lift his head and follow the sound.

“Please do something!” He knows Merlin understands what he didn’t say, because blue eyes find him and even through the tears and the bruising, he tries to offer him a smile. “It’ll be okay, love.”

It’s the wrong thing to say in front of Uther who drops the switch and uses his fist to beat into the pulpy mess of Merlin’s chest. He kicks him, and Arthur can see spit and blood dripping out of his mouth.

“You’re killing him!” He doesn’t mean for the panic to be so obvious in his voice but he manages to stand again, despite the dizziness, the nausea. He throws himself between his father and Merlin.

Or he tries too. His balance is off and he’s only half shielding Merlin, but he thinks it might have been the wrong move anyway. Uther’s face turns a frightening shade of purple and he shoves his son out of the way. When Arthur falls, he can hear something in his back pop, and there’s a tingling down his legs.

“I’ll deal with you later”

Arthur doesn’t respond. He just watches as Merlin’s head lolls to the side, as Uther gets a fist around his neck. It echoes in the courtyard, the small popping sound Merlin’s neck makes.

Arthur screams then. Loud and long and until his throat is raw. He screams as they take the body away, as his two guards drag him to his room. He screams as he is stripped and scrubbed and redressed. He doesn’t stop screaming until he is locked in his room. Until the doctor comes and shines a light in his face and tells him the damage is permanent. He’ll always be half blind and half deaf.

He curls in his bed then, and vows never to leave it. His father lets him stay there. Arthur loses all track of time. Food is brought in and he doesn’t eat it. Someone bathes him but he never feels clean. His wound is dressed but the ringing never stops. He smashes the right side of his face into his pillow, tries to balance the dark silence, make it even.

He doesn't know how long he’s been hiding in his room, when Merlin joins him. Curls up beside him and just holds him. He’s pale, too pale, and completely silent.

“You were gone too long.”

Merlin gives him a look that Arthur takes to mean “I am here now.”

“Will you stay?”

Merlin smiles at him. Arthur closes his eyes. Finally the ringing ends.

  
  



End file.
